The Club - DaaVeeDee

The Club (DVD) (*)

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Screened, competed or awarded at:
Australian Film Institute

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Australia ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
95 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Featurette
Interactive Menu
Music Video
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 1980 and produced in:
Australia ( Australia, New Zealand )

Directed By:
Bruce Beresford

Written By:
David Williamson (play)
David Williamson (screenplay)

Actors:
Jack Thompson ..... Laurie Holden
Graham Kennedy ..... Ted Parker
Frank Wilson ..... Jock Riley
Harold Hopkins ..... Danny Rowe
John Howard ..... Geoff Hayward
Alan Cassell ..... Gerry
Maggie Doyle ..... Susy
Lou Richards ..... Commentator
Toni-Gay Shaw ..... Stripper
Jack Harris ..... First club official
Frank Raggatt ..... Second club official
Jim Cain ..... Third club official
Gary Files ..... Second football commentator
Ed Turley ..... Tony
Scot Palmer ..... Newspaper reporter 1

Synopsis:

Bruce Beresford directed this adaptation of David Williamson's play (Williamson also scripted) about the ever-widening gap between professional sport and its boardroom intrigues. Jack Thompson is Laurie, a once popular ball player on the Australian Rules football circuit, but now an ineffective coach who tries to spark a mediocre football team into winning the league championship. But as he struggles to motivate his players, he becomes increasingly disenchanted with the sport as he witnesses how big business interests have become the main motivation of the game that has turned the game that he has devoted his life to into a heartless and insensitive sports franchise.

Outside, the fans are cheering the high marks and the low tackles. Inside, the executives are wheeling and dealing, back slapping and back stabbing. From Bruce Beresford, the award winning Director of 'Don's Party', 'Breaker Morant' and 'Puberty Blues', comes David Williamson's 'The Club'. When a struggling Aussie rules club buys a talented young football player (John Howard) for a record sum, friction immediately develops between the devoted Coach (Jack Thompson), the insecure Club President (Graham Kennedy), the over-the-hill Captain (Harold Hopkins) and the scheming committee-man (Frank Wilson)...It's tough enough on the football field, but in the boardroom it's a battle ground! Set in the golden era of the VFL, when teams played for the jumper not the money, the blood rule didn't exist and 'Up There Cazaly' was considered by footy fans to be the new national anthem, David Williamson's 'The Club' takes you behind-the-scenes of the power struggles at an Aussie rules club stuck at the bottom of the ladder.

It's tough enough on the Australian Rules Football field, but in the boardroom it's a battle ground! In this club nobody plays by the rules. Outside the fans are cheering the high marks and the low tackles as their team battles towards the premiership. Inside, the executives are wheeling and dealing, back slapping and back stabbing. The club buys a talented young player, Geoff, for a record sum of money and, not surprisingly, the team members do not like their new star. Friction develops immediately, even with the Captain whose own playing days are numbered. Geoff expresses his resentment by lack of effort and indifference. Game after game is lost, until Geoff begins to realize that there is more at stake than just his own career that what matters to others, their pride and even their whole existence, is bound up with the success of the team.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 15 November, 2005.

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